The Five | Russian composers | Britannica.com Russian composers Alternative Titles: Moguchaya Kuchka, The Mighty Five, The Russian Five Similar Topics Les Six The Five, also called The Russian Five or The Mighty Five, Russian Moguchaya Kuchka (“The Mighty Little Heap”), group of five Russian composers— César Cui , Aleksandr Borodin , Mily Balakirev , Modest Mussorgsky , and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov —who in the 1860s banded together in an attempt to create a truly national school of Russian music, free of the stifling influence of Italian opera, German lieder, and other western European forms. The original name of the group, Moguchaya Kuchka, was coined in a newspaper article in 1867. Centred in St. Petersburg , the members of The Five are often considered to have been a rival faction to the more cosmopolitan , Moscow-centred composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , although Tchaikovsky often used actual folk songs in his music and Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov emphasized traditional European training in their work.

Precursors of The Five were Mikhail Glinka and Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky . They were succeeded by a less energetic generation including Anatoly Lyadov , Sergey Taneyev , and Aleksandr Glazunov . Learn More in these related articles: Russia country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Once the preeminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.; commonly known as the Soviet Union), Russia became an independent country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. César Cui Jan. 6 [Jan. 18, New Style], 1835 Vilna [now Vilnius], Lithuania, Russian Empire March 24, 1918 Petrograd [St. Petersburg], Russia Russian composer of operas, songs, and piano music. He was a music critic and military engineer who, with Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, and... 1 Reference found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this.

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Close Date Published: May 10, 2002 URL: Access Date: January 19, 2017 Share Modest Mussorgsky Profile March 9, 1839 - Karevo, Russia Died: March 16, 1881 - St. Petersburg, Russia Mussorgsky Quick Facts: Mussorgsky was part of a group of composers referred to as The Five . The other four members were César Cui, Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Their goal was to create a national school of Russian music that existed entirely without western influences. It was to be its own style of music with its own set of rules. Towards the end of Mussorgsky's life, he became an alcoholic. Finding himself alone on too many occasions, he turned to alcohol to comfort his emotions. Unfortunately, this led to several alcoholic epilepsies and multiple trips to the hospital. Mussorgsky's Family and Childhood: Mussorgsky was born to a wealthy, land-owning family (though their wealth was barely a few generations old; his great-grandparents were serfs).

Mussorgsky's mother was a skilled pianist and began teaching him when he was young. continue reading below our video Celebrity Breakups of 2015 We Didn't See Coming By the time he was 7 years old, he became quite proficient and was performing works by Franz Liszt, albeit moderately easy ones. In 1849, his father enrolled him and his brother into St. Peter's School, where he studied piano with Anton Herke, along with his general studies. In 1852, he entered into the Imperial Guards Cadet School where his published his first piece, Porte Enseigne Polka. Mussorgsky's Teenage Years: In 1856, he joined the Preobrazhensky Regimentmost, Russia's most elite regiment. Mussorgsky met many officers who shared similar musical passions. He met Aleksandr Borodin, a future member of the The Five. Borodin, along with the other cadets, liked having Mussorgsky around as he would often play the piano at parties; the ladies would woo and sigh over him.

The course of Mussorgsky's musical career changed when he was introduced to Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky, one of Russia's leading composers. Mussorgsky began developing his own Russian musical style. In 1858, he quit the army to devote his life to music. Mussorgsky's Early Adult Life: With his father's death in 1853, the freeing of the serfs, and a career in music, Mussorgsky family wealth had essentially dried up. Mussorgsky often turned to borrowing money to make ends meet, and lived in a small "six-man commune." In 1863, he took a low-level civil servant position within the Ministry of Communications. By this time, Mussorgsky was largely teaching himself music. He worked on several operas, Salammbo and The Marriage, but failed completing them after losing interest. He later used passages from Salammbo within his more famous opera, Boris Godunov. In 1867, he completed Night on Bald Mountain . Mussorgsky's Mid-Adult Life: Mussorgsky had developed a taste for alcohol, likely picked up from cadet school.

Several years prior, in 1865, his mother died. He lived briefly with his brother, before moving into a small flat with another composer. Though he was a member of The Five, his lifestyle remained quite different. Many of his works remained unfinished. His opera, Boris Godunov was started in 1868, but it took nearly four years of off-and-on again commitment to the piece before it was finally finished and performed in 1974. It was a large success for Mussorgsky. However, it was downhill for Mussorgsky from there. Mussorgsky's Late Adult Life: When The Five began meeting less and less, Mussorgsky started feeling bitter. He would often have fits of madness, largely due to alcoholism . He had begun to fall away from his friends, a close friend of his had died, and another had moved away to get married. Mussorgsky fell deeper into depression and isolation. However, he still managed to compose several pieces of music. He even toured to multiple cities as an accompanist for an aging singer. Sadly, in 1871, he experienced three consecutive alcoholic epilepsies and was taken to the hospital.

While there, he had his portrait painted. He died a month later. Well Known Works by Modest Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain (1867) The Nursery (1868) Pictures from an Exhibition (1874) Songs and Dances of Death (1875) The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The... - Classical Literature Hello World Tuesday, December 27, 2011 The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie (Russian: Могучая кучка, Moguchaya kuchka), refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin. The group had the aim of producing a specifically Russian kind of art music, rather than one that imitated older European music or relied on European-style conservatory training.

In a sense, they were a branch of the Romantic Nationalist movement in Russia, sharing similar artistic goals with the Abramtsevo Colony and Russian Revival. In May 1867 the critic Vladimir Stasov wrote an article, Mr. Balakirev’s Slavic Concert, on a concert given for visiting Slav delegations to the “All-Russian Ethnographical Exhibition” in Moscow. The four Russian composers whose works were played at the concert were Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Mily Balakirev, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

The article ended with the following statement: “God grant that our Slav guests may never forget today’s concert; God grant that they may forever preserve the memory of how much poetry, feeling, talent, and intelligence are possessed by the small but already mighty handful of Russian musicians.” —Vladimir Stasov, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, 1867 The expression “mighty handful” (Russian: Могучая кучка, Moguchaya kuchka, “Mighty Bunch” or “Group”), was mocked by enemies of Balakirev and Stasov: Aleksandr Serov, academic circles of the conservatory, the Russian Musical Society, and their press supporters. The group responded by defiantly adopting the name. This loose collection of composers gathered around Balakirev now included Cui, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Borodin — the five who have come to be associated with the name “Mighty Handful”, or sometimes “The Five”. Profile of Modest Mussorgsky Profile of Modest Mussorgsky March 21, 1839; his father was a landowner.

Birthplace: March 28, 1881 in St. Petersburg Also Known As: His full name was Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky; a Russian composer who was a member of "The Five" also known as "The Russian Five" or "The Mighty Five." This group, which was founded in the 1860s, was composed of 5 Russian composers who wanted to establish a nationalist school of Russian music. Type of Compositions: Mussorgsky wrote operas , songs , piano pieces and melodies. He is especially known for his vivid portrayal of Russian life through his works. Influence: His mother taught him how to play the piano. As a child Mussorgsky also had a nurse who told him stories of Russian fairy tales; this had a huge impact on him. He was taught by Anton Gerke who later became a professor at St. Petersburg Conservatory. Later on, Russian composer Mily Balakirev became his teacher.

Notable Works: His notable works include "Podpraporshchik" (1852, his first composition), songs such as “Darling Savishna," “Hopak” and “The Seminarist," his symphonic poem "Ivanova noch na Lysoy gore" (1867) and his famous opera "Boris Godunov" (premiered in 1874, St. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance Petersburg). Mussorgsky died before he could finish his opera "Khovanshchina" but it was completed by his friend and former flatmate Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov . Interesting Facts: Originally, Mussorgsky's father wanted him to pursue a military career. In 1849, Mussorgsky was enrolled at the Peter-Paul School and later on the Cadets of the Guard in 1852. By 1856 Mussorgsky was already a lieutenant and he joined the Preobrazhensky Guards. It was during that time when he met fellow officer, Aleksandr Borodin , who would later on become a respected composer himself.

That same year he was invited to Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky's home, another Russian composer. Mussorgsky eventually quit the army and worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Communications. Other Facts: Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a distant relative, inspired Mussorgksy to write two cycles of melodies - "Bez solntsa" and "Pesni i plyaski smerti." His "Kartinki s vystavki" (Pictures from an Exhibition) was inspired by the death of his friend Victor Hartmann. This was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in 1922. Although he was a brilliant composer, Mussorgsky had bouts of loneliness which drove him to alcohol. This greatly affected his health, landed him in hospital and caused his eventual death. Music Sample: Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881) is generally acclaimed the finest of the group of Russian composers known as the Mighty Five.

Without Modest Mussorgsky the notion of the Russian 19th century as one of musical realism would be unsupportable. In his operas, especially Boris Godunov, he successfully explored human emotions and failings individually and collectively in a new and forthright manner singularly bereft of the pretensions and emotional excess of the 19th century. His operatic work marks a crossroads in the understanding and use of the form in music history. Mussorgsky was born on March 9, 1839, in the village of Karevo in the Pskov district. His family was of the middle landed gentry, which placed them high above the serfs, although Mussorgsky had some serf blood. His cultured mother gave him piano lessons and encouraged his clumsy but early efforts at composition. At 10 he went to St. Petersburg to study piano with Anton Herke, to prepare for cadet school, and to be tutored in the ways of a young urban gentleman. He entered the Imperial Guards Cadet School in 1852 and, in the course of the year, published (at his family's expense) Porte Enseigne Polka for his classmates.

His lessons with Herke continued until 1854. Mussorgsky joined the glittering Preobrazhensky Imperial Guards Regiment in 1856. As a teen-age officer, Mussorgsky met, while on duty, Aleksandr Borodin, a medical officer. The two were not to come together as members of the Mighty Five for some few years, but Borodin remembered Mussorgsky as a smart, dapper, well-mannered, slightly French and slightly foppish youth who played the piano coquettishly at parties, eliciting cries of "charmant!" and "delicieux!" from the assembled young women. The years brought considerable change in that image. In 1859 Mussorgsky met Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky, who introduced him to César Cui, also a military officer, and to Mily Balakirev, later the leader of the Mighty Five. In late 1857 and 1858 Mussorgsky went through the first of several emotional crises and resigned from the Guards in 1859.

That same year he spoke to Balakirev of having been "reborn," not only in the sense of recovery from his nervous disorder but in his conversion, he said, from cosmopolitan to patriot. The thinking of the music and art critic Vladimir Stasov is reflected here, but more particularly that of the Russian social critics Chernyshevsky and Dobroliubov. Among these new friends, Mussorgsky was writing music with some seriousness. In 1860 his Scherzo in B-flat for orchestra was performed in St. Petersburg. In 1861 Mussorgsky's financial base was destroyed: the emancipation of the serfs led to the liquidation, over a 2-year period, of the family estate. In the early 1860s Mussorgsky felt musically dependent on, but fretted under, Balakirev and was close to Dargomyzhsky. Mussorgsky had established certain work patterns: he started something new with great enthusiasm only to bog down in self-doubt, insecure in his technical abilities. Three projected operas were among such works.

Mussorgsky did not associate with the other members of the Balakirev circle but with "proletarian" friends in a communal setting. In 1863 he began work on the opera Salammbo (from Gustave Flaubert's novel). Although he did not finish it, music from this opera figured in later work, most importantly in Boris Godunov. He left another opera, The Marriage (1864-1868), unfinished; Cherepnin completed the work in 1909. By 1869 Mussorgsky had abandoned his communal style of living and reentered government service, in the Forestry Department. He was already a serious alcoholic with epileptic tendencies. Though he was a nominal member of the Mighty Five (the term, literally the "Mighty Fist," was used by Stasov in 1867), his life style set him apart from the others. Indeed, he often denied vehemently his belonging, creatively, to any group.

From a suggestion by Stasov, but developing his own ideas and preparing his own libretto from texts by Aleksandr Pushkin and Nicolai Karamzin, Mussorgsky set to work on Boris Godunov in 1868. The first version was finished in 1869; that date was but the beginning of a fitful series of redrawings of music and scenario by Mussorgsky and others which has probably not even yet ended. He returned to it in 1871 and again in 1872 but was lured away by, among other things, the joint effort at an opera, Mlada, by himself, Borodin, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Cui. The collective effort was abortive, but all used music from it for other works. In 1872 Mussorgsky also started Khovanshchina, an opera based on another Russian historical episode. This, too, was unfinished, but enough was done to establish it as one of his major works. He worked on Khovanshchina and another opera, Sorochinsk Fair (finished by Liadov and Karatygin), until 1880.

The period 1871-1881 also saw the piano tribute to artist-architect Viktor Hartmann, Pictures at an Exhibition (1874; orchestrated by various composers, including Maurice Ravel in 1922), The Songs and Dances of Death (1875), and a number of other works, making this, though his last, his most productive decade. The Mighty Five had begun to disintegrate as a circle after 1872, and Mussorgsky's health was worsening. Near the end of his life he toured with the singer Daria Leonova. He died, more or less in her care, on March 16, 1881, in St. Petersburg. "Boris Godunov" Musically one turns again and again to Boris Godunov to reveal what Mussorgsky was and what he wanted. The work is intensely, intimately vocal. And, although he wrote effectively for orchestra, the voice was the instrument he trusted and understood (he had given voice lessons).

He had a lyric quality that was curiously enhanced by laconic punctuation; and it was just such anomalies that disturbed the doctrinaire Rimsky-Korsakov, who complained of the "absurdity, ugliness, and illogic" of so much of Mussorgsky's music. Made vulnerable by his technical lapses, Mussorgsky thus suffered, too, for his originality. There is a relentless, inevitable movement forward in Mussorgsky's style, in significant measure related to his understanding of the folk process in music, which provides him with the deftness of the caricaturist's hand: his vignettes of a drunken priest, a clown, an idiot, a vain princess, or a mad czar are sure and convincing. The crowd scenes in Boris Godunov are particularly telling; they range from groups of worshipers through coronation crowds to peasants and soldiers. It is not sufficient to point out the approximations to human speech and sounds; Mussorgsky believed that speech itself followed strict musical rules and that music, like all art, is a means of communicating with people. He not only dealt in living scenes of real people but drew out of such situations certain principles and truths.

And it is in the latter rather than the former that realism lies. That Czar Boris is the tortured product of forces of both good and evil is nowhere stated; but in depicting his inchoate rage at his enemies on the one hand and the beauty of his tenderness to his daughter on the other, Mussorgsky focuses effectively on the conflict. Further Reading Jay Leyda and Sergei Bertenson edited The Mussorgsky Reader (1947), a selection of Mussorgsky's letters and other memorabilia mostly taken from a collection of Andrei Rimsky-Korsakov published in Moscow in 1932. The most important study of Mussorgsky is Michel D. Calvocoressi, Modest Mussorgsky: His Life and Works, edited by Gerald Abraham (1956). Earlier, less complete works by Calvocoressi are Mussorgsky: The Russian Musical Nationalist (1919) and Mussorgsky (1946). Less scholarly is Victor Seroff, Modeste Mussorgsky (1968). For background on Mussorgsky's milieu see Gerald Abraham and Michel D. Calvocoressi, Masters of Russian Music (1936).

□ Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music © The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. Mussorgsky, Modest (Petrovich) (b Karevo, Pskov, 1839; d St Petersburg, 1881). Russ. composer. Showed mus. talent as a child but was destined for an army career. In 1857 he met Balakirev in St Petersburg and studied with him, resigning his commission the next year. His early songs and pf. pieces show little sign of his later achievement, but by 1864 he was writing fine songs. He started and abandoned 2 operas, but began work in 1868 on Boris Godunov , which he rev. when it was rejected by the Imperial Th. On its prod. in 1874 it pleased audiences but not musicians, who resented its unconventional methods and unusual style in which speech-inflexion governed the vocal lines.

Over the next few years Mussorgsky worked on 2 operas, but his heavy drinking, a habit acquired at cadet school, sapped his capacity for concentrated work. He was one of the group of 5 Russ. composers of nationalist tendencies known as the ‘Mighty handful’ . After his death his works were completed and ‘improved’ by Rimsky-Korsakov and others, but in the 20th cent. his realistic and progressive qualities have been recognized and his orig. scores have been restored where possible. Prin. comps.:OPERAS: Salammbô (unfinished, 1863–6); The Marriage (1 act only finished) (1868); Boris Godunov (1868–9, rev. 1871–2, rev.

1873); Mlada (projected 4-act opera-ballet of which Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Borodin were to compose the other 3 acts, 1872); Khovanshchina (1873, 5th act unfinished); Sorochintsy Fair (1876–81, unfinished).ORCH.: Night on the Bare Mountain (1867, rev. 1872, 1874).PIANO: Souvenir d'Enfance (1857); Intermezzo (1861, orch. and expanded 1867); Memories of Childhood (1865); Pictures at an Exhibition (1874).SONGS: Many solo songs and 3 song-cycles: The Nursery (7 songs) (1868–72); Sunless (6 songs) (1874); Songs and Dances of Death (4 songs) (1875–7).

(The famous Song of the Flea dates from 1879.) Cite this article Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - New World Encyclopedia Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Next (Nikolai Trubetzkoy) Portrait of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov by Valentin Serov (1898) Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov ( Russian : Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков, Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov), also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, (March 6/18, 1844 – June 8/21, 1908) was a Russian composer , one of five great nineteenth-century Russian composers known as “The Five,” or “The Mighty Handful.” Rimsky-Korsakov later taught harmony and orchestration. He is particularly noted for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects, one of the hallmarks of Russian Romanticism , and for his extraordinary skill in orchestration, which may have been influenced by his synesthesia (synesthesia is a neurological condition in which two or more senses are experienced simultaneously.

Certain sounds, for example, might be perceived by the synesthete as having their own color). The use of folklore for musical motifs was guided by the Romantic sense that each nation or culture had its own animating spirit that would be expressed in its own national laws, customs, mores, government and arts. The "Mighty Handful," more than any other group of composers in Russia or the rest of Europe, were associated with this notion. Contents 10 Credits Biography Born at Tikhvin (near Novgorod) into an aristocratic family, Rimsky-Korsakov showed musical ability from an early age, but studied at the Russian Imperial Naval College in Saint Petersburg and subsequently joined the Russian Navy. It was only when he met Mily Balakirev in 1861 that he began to concentrate more seriously on music. Balakirev encouraged him to compose and taught him when he was not at sea (a fictionalized episode of Rimsky-Korsakov's sea voyages forms the plot of the motion picture Song of Scheherazade, the musical score adapted by Miklós Rózsa).

He also met the other composers of the group that were to become known as "The Five," or "The Mighty Handful," through Mily Balakirev. While in the navy (partly on a world cruise), Rimsky-Korsakov completed his first symphony (1861-1865), which some have (mistakenly) deemed the first such piece to be composed by a Russian, although Anton Rubinstein composed his own first symphony in 1850. Before resigning his commission in 1873, Rimsky-Korsakov also completed the first version of his well known orchestral piece, the opera Sadko (1867) as well as the opera The Maid of Pskov (1872). These three are among several early works which the composer revised later in life. Nadezhda Purgold, Rimsky-Korsakov’s wife In 1871, despite his lack of conservatory training, Rimsky-Korsakov became professor of composition and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

The next year he married Nadezhda Nikolayevna Purgol'd (1848-1919), who was also a pianist and composer. During his first few years at the conservatory, Rimsky-Korsakov assiduously studied harmony and counterpoint in order to make up for the lack of such training, despite his informal education during his years with The Mighty Handful. In 1883 Rimsky-Korsakov worked under Balakirev in the Court Chapel as a deputy. This post gave him the chance to study Russian Orthodox church music. He worked there until 1894. He also became a conductor, leading Russian Symphony Concerts sponsored by Mitrofan Belyayev as well as some programs abroad. Rimsky-Korsakov's grave at Tikhvin Cemetery In 1905 Rimsky-Korsakov was removed from his professorship in Saint Petersburg due to his expression of political views contrary to the authorities (1905 proved a turning point in the popularity of the Imperial government due to the events of Bloody Sunday and the Revolution of 1905, a precursor to the events of 1917 ).

This sparked a series of resignations by his fellow faculty members, and he was eventually reinstated. The political controversy continued with his opera The Golden Cockerel (Le Coq d'Or) (1906-1907), whose implied criticism of the monarchy upset the censors to the extent that the premiere was delayed until 1909, after the composer's death. Towards the end of his life Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina . He died in Lyubensk in 1908, and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg. His widow, Nadezhda, spent the rest of her life preserving the composer's legacy. The Rimsky-Korsakovs had seven children: Mikhail (b.1873), Sofia (b.1875), Andrey (1878-1940), Vladimir (b.1882), Nadezhda (b.1884), Margarita (1888-1893), and Slavchik (1889-1890).

Nadezhda married another Russian composer, Maximilian Steinberg in 1908. Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov was a musicologist who wrote a multi-volume study of his father's life and work, which included a chapter devoted to his mother Nadezhda. A nephew, Georgy Mikhaylovich Rimsky-Korsakov (1901-1965), was also a composer. Russian Nationalism The social upheaval of the French Revolution in 1789 and the attitudes it engendered, specifically the primacy of individual rights, signified an important cultural change for music and musicians The populist ethos surrounding the beginnings of Romanticism in Europe engendered a spirit of inclusiveness in which in turn led to music becoming more public and less private, a condition which allowed for greater exposure of high art. As composers of the Romantic era looked to literary and folk influences as inspiration for their creativity, this spawned numerous compositions based on the legends, folklore, history and mythology of their native countries. Composers such as Dvorak , Smetana, Grieg, Albeniz, to name a few, based a number of their works on these particular aspects.

This too became a defining attribute of Romantic music. As a member of the "Mighty Five" in Russia (which included, Cesar Cui, Milay Balikirev, Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin) Rimsky-Korsakov was part of the vanguard of nationalist tendencies that permeated Russian culture of the late 19th century. Though Tchaikovsky was not a member of "the Might Five," he nonetheless utilized Russian folk music as source material and several of his operas are based on Russian legend. Rimsky-Korsakov often utilized folk melodies liturgical themes of the Russian Orthodox church in his music. This was a feature not only of Russian Romanticism, but Romanticism in music in general. Romanticism dominated music in the last half of the 19th century. In 1882, Russian author Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov wrote in a compelling essay entitled "Our Music" in which he asserted that Russian independence from past traditions (particularly German ones) was necessary for a "New Russian School" of music to emerge.

Citing composer Mikhail Glinka (104-1857) as being the progenitor of a independent Russian school, Stasov called for Russian composers to follow Glinka's lead in developing a distinct national tradition. He wrote, " Our musicians need to verify everything for themselves according to their own lights, and only then will they acknowledge the greatness in a composer and significance of his work." For Stasov, striving for a "national character" meant connecting the tradition of high art with populist sentiment. Folk songs a part of nearly every aspect of Russian life and as such Stasov felt it to be imperative to use this rich folkloric material as the basis for Russian music . Legacy In his decades at the conservatory, Rimsky-Korsakov taught many composers who would later achieve international fame, including Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev , and Igor Stravinsky . Rimsky-Korsakov's legacy goes far beyond his compositions and his teaching career. His tireless efforts in editing the works of other members of The Mighty Handful are significant, if controversial.

These include the completion of Alexander Borodin 's opera Prince Igor (with Alexander Glazunov), orchestration of passages from César Cui's William Ratcliff for the first production in 1869, and the complete orchestration of Alexander Dargomyzhsky's swan song, The Stone Guest. This effort was a practical extension of the fact that Rimsky-Korsakov's early works had been under the intense scrutiny of Balakirev and that the members of The Mighty Handful, during the 1860s and 1870s, experienced each other's compositions-in-progress and even collaborated at times. While the effort for his colleagues is laudable, it is not without its problems for musical reception. In particular, after the death of Modest Mussorgsky in 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov took on the task of revising and completing several of Mussorgsky's pieces for publication and performance. In some cases these versions helped to spread Mussorgsky's works to the West, but Rimsky-Korsakov has been accused of pedantry for "correcting" matters of harmony, etc., in the process.

Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain is the version generally performed today. However, critical opinion of Mussorgsky has changed over time so that his style, once considered unpolished, is now valued for its originality. This has caused some of Rimsky-Korsakov's other revisions, such as that of the opera, Boris Godunov, to fall out of favor and be replaced by productions more faithful to Mussorgsky's original manuscripts. Synesthesia Rimsky-Korsakov was a synesthete, a condition which associates colors to various sounds. He perceived colors with keys as follows [1] : Note rosy colored Overview of compositions Rimsky-Korsakov was a prolific composer. Like his compatriot César Cui, his greatest efforts were expended on his operas . There are fifteen operas to his credit, including Kashchey the Immortal and The Tale of Tsar Saltan. The subjects of the operas range from historical melodramas like The Tsar's Bride, to folk operas, such as May Night, to fairytales and legends like The Snow Maiden.

In their juxtaposed depictions of the real and the fantastic, the operas invoke folk melodies, realistic declamation, lyrical melodies, and artificially constructed harmonies with effective orchestral expression. Most of Rimsky-Korsakov's operas remain in the standard repertoire in Russia to this day. The best known selections from the operas that are known in the West are "Dance of the Tumblers" from Snowmaiden, "Procession of the Nobles" from Mlada, "Song of the Indian Guest" (or, less accurately, "Song of India,") from Sadko, and especially "Flight of the Bumblebee" from Tsar Saltan, as well as suites from The Golden Cockerel and The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya. Nevertheless, Rimsky-Korsakov's status in the West has long been based on his orchestral compositions, most famous among which are Capriccio Espagnol, Russian Easter Festival Overture, and especially the symphonic suite Scheherazade.

In addition, he composed dozens of art songs, arrangements of folk songs, some chamber and piano music, and a considerable number of choral works, both secular and for Russian Orthodox Church service, including settings of portions of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom . Major literary works My Musical Life. [Летопись моей музыкальной жизни —literally, Chronicle of My Musical Life.] Trans. from the 5th rev. Russian edited by Judah A. Joffe with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten. London: Ernst Eulenberg Ltd, 1974. Practical Manual of Harmony. [Практический учебник гармонии.] First published in Russian in 1885. First English edition published by Carl Fischer in 1930, trans. from the 12th Russian ed. by Joseph Achron. Current English ed. by Nicholas Hopkins. New York: C. Fischer, 2005. Principles of Orchestration. [Основы оркестровки.] Begun in 1873 and completed posthumously by Maximilian Steinberg in 1912.

First published in Russian in 1922, ed. by Maximilian Steinberg. English trans. by Edward Agate. New York: Dover Publications, 1964. References Abraham, Gerald. 1945. Rimsky-Korsakov: a Short Biography. Reprint edition, 1975. New York: AMS Press. ISBN 0404145000 Griffiths, Steven. A Critical Study of the Music of Rimsky-Korsakov, 1844-1890. New York: Garland, 1989. ISBN 0824001974 Rimsky-Korsakov, A. N. Н.А. Римский-Корсаков: жизнь и творчество (N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov: Life and Work). 5 vols. Москва: Государственное музыкальное издательство, 1930. Taruskin, Richard.

"The Case for Rimsky-Korsakov." Opera News 56: 16-17 (1991–1992: 12–17 and 24-29. Yastrebtsev, Vasily Vasilievich. Reminiscences of Rimsky-Korsakov. Ed. and trans. by Florence Jonas. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. References ↑ *Harrison, John. 2001. Synaesthesia: The Strangest Thing. ISBN 0192632450 . p.123. External links

Question: The group of Russian composers known as 'The Five' or 'The Mighty Handful' were Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui and which other?
Answer: ALEKSANDR BORODIN